We need your support!
This appeal is to provide £210,000 to match the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Round 2 grant we are seeking of £840,000 which has received approval at Round 1 of the HLF application.

Therefore every £10 donated is worth £50 to the Project, and even more if Gift Aided.

For Children up to 8 we have the Stepney Club. The 9F Club allows older children to get more involved behind the scenes at the railway.
Details of how we assist with School Visits to the railway - projects can contribute towards Key Stages 1 & 2 of the National Curriculum.

Welcome to the Bluebell Railway's Home Page

The volunteer-run Bluebell Line was the UK's first preserved standard gauge
passenger railway, re-opening part of the Lewes to East Grinstead line of
the old London
Brighton & South Coast Railway in 1960. Since then it has developed
into one of the largest tourist attractions in Sussex, yet it still remains
true to
its objectives of the preservation for posterity of a country branch line,
its steam locomotives, coaches and goods stock, signalling systems,
stations and operating practices.

A steam train ride on the Bluebell is one of the top things to do with kids on holiday for a day out in Sussex (the line crosses the border between East Sussex and West Sussex, and is not far from Surrey). This heritage railway is close to Haywards Heath, Gatwick Airport, Uckfield, Brighton and Lewes, in the Ashdown Forest/Mid Sussex area of England. Your children will love to take our vintage steam rail trip during your vacation.

Photo, above right, thanks to Andrew Strongitharm. The unusual combination of a GWR "Dukedog" and an SR "West Country" depart northwards from Horsted Keynes station at the 2005 "Giants of Steam" gala.
To view larger versions of most of the pictures on this site,
just click on them.

Other pages, with information about
the stations, Our East Grinstead extension, and potential further extensions to the current line,
accommodation locally, and other general
background material;

Links to related pages, plus a
Search Engine to help you find whatever you are looking for on the
Bluebell web site or elsewhere on the Internet.

The railway is operated by "Bluebell Railway plc", which is majority owned
by the volunteer membership through the Bluebell Railway Preservation
Society,
and this membership also provides the dedicated volunteer labour which
enables the line to continue running. Any financial surplus made from
running
the trains is ploughed straight back into preservation work. The only
"dividend" members receive is the immense satisfaction of seeing "their"
railway provide a day's entertainment for hundreds of thousands of visitors
each year.

Disclaimer: Whilst every care has been
taken to ensure the accuracy of these pages, the Bluebell Railway cannot be
held
responsible for any errors or omissions. In addition any information
or advice given on these pages is provided in good faith, but should
not be relied upon for safety-critical applications. Bluebell
Railway reserves the
right to vary any of the provisions of this web site without prior notice. This website does not form part of any contract between the Railway and current or prospective visitors or customers. Those requiring information on specific matters should seek written confirmation from the Railway.

Please email the web site editor,
Richard Salmon, with any comments or suggestions about format or content.

External links are provided in good faith, but the Bluebell Railway cannot be held responsible for the content to be found on other web sites.

Privacy: We do not collect personal information on users. We do not share any statistical data on the usage of the site with other websites, companies or individuals.

Cookies: This BRPS website (.co.uk) does not use or issue cookies.
The Bluebell Railway is not responsible for cookies that may originate from third-party sites, such as YouTube or Facebook.

Out of principle we do not normally use restrictive features such as
frames or Java, since these go against the
original and laudable
concept of html as a user-formatted document language. This also
makes for far faster down-loads. Pages can also be viewed and
navigated acceptably
with images turned off. One little bit of
Javascript is included in this page to escape from being locked into
someone else's frame, but if your browser doesn't support this, it
should not be affected.